The present invention relates to a method of discharging paper in a video printer, and more particularly, to a method for increasing printing speed with high picture quality in the paper holder of a video printer.
Generally, a video printer is used to print pictures recorded by momentarily acquiring a video signal and the picture to be reproduced on a monitor through a recording device such as a still camera. There has previously been disclosed a method of heat conductive sublimation for sublimating each of three colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C) successively; this method enables a gradation of the color to be expressed freely, thus enabling expression with all of the colors from the video signal.
In conventional, commercially available multi-color printers, the platen drum must necessarily rotate after completion of printing in order to discharge the completely printed paper. In some models, even the direction of platen drum rotation must be reversed to be discharged. Generally, in currently available multi-color printers, to assure rotation of the completely printed paper during the discharge rotation of the platen drum, the thermal print head is positioned to press the printed paper and a portion of the dye-bearing color ribbon against the platen drum. This portion of the dye-bearing ribbon adjoins the three-color array of dyes used to print the paper, and is itself not necessary for printing of the paper. Consequently, the currently available printers and their processes require an additional length of ribbon solely to accommodate the frictional force required to be used between the platen, paper, ribbon and thermal print head during the final steps of advancing the finished paper toward discharge. In order to engage the additional portion of the ribbon however, the platen drum must rotate incrementally by the length of the additional portion of the ribbon, thereby further slowing the printing process. In summary, currently available printers and multi-color printing processes are unnecessarily wasteful of ribbon material and time.